Philippians 1:1-11 • Joy in Letting God Be the Perfectionist

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What is your motivation for being good? Do you have a strong tendency to be a perfectionist in everything? Why? How does that affect your relationship with God? The last post introduced you to what biblical joy is and what it means to have that kind of joy in our lives. This is post #3 in the Philippians blog series. In this post, we will look at the joy of letting God be the perfectionist in our lives rather than ourselves.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from the Knowing Jesus…Knowing Joy! Bible Study covering Philippians in the New Testament. (10 lessons)

The Lost Cause of a Human Perfectionist

The lost cause

I was once an up-tight perfectionist. Yes, I admit it. My whole self-image depended upon being perfect in grades, piano performance, and whatever got me awards for achievement.

Yet, my flaws kept getting in the way—like not getting straight A’s one six weeks so that I missed out on the “straight A’s” award for that whole school year. I was horrible in athletics so PE was my nemesis. Then, in college, physics knocked me down big time. I just couldn’t see how to get the answers to those problems.

My flaws were ever before me, and I sobbed when I couldn’t achieve perfection—which happened a lot. Can you relate?

The problem

I wanted to be a good girl. I thought that if I played the part of being cheerful and following all the rules at home and school, everyone would consider me “good.” And if I were good enough, not only would my parents love me but even God would love me and be pleased with me. Sounded like a great strategy. One problem, though. A really big problem! I couldn’t keep that goodness up all the time.

No one can be good enough on her own to please God 100% of the time from birth to grave in order to earn His love and acceptance. The Bible teaches that truth. The last part of Romans 3:12 says this,

“there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:12)

That’s from God’s perspective. No one! My self-image was tied to a losing cause.

God Is the Ultimate Perfectionist

God determines what is good

But God is the ultimate perfectionist. He determines what He considers good. Not me. Not you. None of our little checklists measure up.

God knows how we get stuck in our woefully insufficient attempts to measure up to His standards of goodness (or change them to what we set up as our own). Oh, we can look good on the outside in front of people. That “role-playing” is described so well in 2 Timothy chapter 3 as,

“having a form of godliness but denying its power.” (2 Timothy 3:5)

They were looking good on the outside but had self-centered hearts rather than God-dependent ones. When we are intellectually honest with ourselves, we recognize this to be true.

For more on this passage, read the blog, “2 Timothy 3:1-13 • Staying Faithful through Grasping Truth.”

The good news

But there’s good news for all of us who think we can be good enough on our own to please God and earn His love and acceptance. Give up! Yep. Stop it! The only human who was ever good enough for God was His Son, Jesus.

When Jesus entered my life as a young woman, He showed me a new way to look at myself—through what He did for me on the cross. When my eyes stopped looking at me and my flaws and started looking at Him and my value in His sight, that burden of performance and perfectionism just rolled off my shoulders. It was the greatest relief I ever felt! And perfectionism has never controlled my life since then (although that tendency to evaluate myself and what I do with critical eyes remains latent in my personality). You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?

The moment we say “no” to our own attempts— those not-so-good things we can’t help doing—and say “yes” to trusting in Jesus and His death on the cross to take away our sins, God clothes us with Jesus and His goodness.

for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. (Galatians 3:27)

My confidence is this: when God looks at me now, He sees Jesus’ goodness. So I am always completely loved and accepted by God. That is huge to a recovering perfectionist like I am!

Through my faith in Christ, God looks upon me as already perfect, as flawless as the most perfect diamond. The Bible calls this Sanctification.

God Perfects Through Sanctification

Sanctification is…

Sanctification is a word we don’t use in our daily vocabulary.

To be sanctified means to be made holy. To be “holy” means to be “set apart for special use.”

Because the two words—sanctified and holy—are so closely connected, they are used interchangeably in our English translations. They mean the same thing though.

Sanctification represents an important change in our standing with God. Our problem before Christ was our need to be separated fromthe world and separated toGod. This is accomplished through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as all believers are turned from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:17-18).

What God does

God demands that we be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). But here’s the best news: God makes us holy in His sight by our faith in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 10:10). His love chooses to do that for us. It absolutely amazes me that God looks upon me and calls me holy in His sight. Doesn’t that amaze you?

But sanctification is more than just having a different status before God. We have a different purpose as well.

Every believer has been set apart as God’s special, beloved possession for His exclusive use.

To be set apart for special use is similar to using fine china and silverware for special occasions. It is the opposite of ordinary and common.

Dear Christian, you are God’s special, beloved possession—called by Him to be dedicated to His service. You have a valuable purpose. How sweet is that!

God Declares You His Saint

Your new title

And God declares you His saint. Paul begins his letter this way:

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus: To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, including the overseers and deacons. (Philippians 1:1 CSB)

Paul addresses his letter “to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.” Some translations (NIV, NLT) say “holy ones” or “holy people,” but it means the same thing. All of those are translating a derivative of the Greek word hagios, meaning “set apart from sin.”

All believers are called “saints” based on their faith in Jesus Christ. You as a saint are identified by position, what God declares to be true about you. Every believer is one of God’s saints, totally loved and accepted by Him. That is part of your new identity.

Not based on behavior

You are considered a saint of God by His declaration, not because of your behavior. Some influential Christians have been titled “Saint” through the years as an honor for their service to God. This is no way negates the truth that every believer is a saint in God’s eyes.

Believers are made holy by Christ’s death on the cross in their relational status before God. You have been redeemed, reconciled to God, forgiven, justified and completely accepted by God because of what Jesus has already done for you on the cross. All of that contributes to God declaring you holy as one of His saints by faith in Jesus Christ. That is your status before God. Perfected…no longer flawed in His sight.

For a more thorough discussion of sanctification, read the blog, “Sanctification: Perfected…No Longer Flawed.”

God Completes His Work

Being made holy

Then, God works to transform you. And He will complete that work. Believers are “being made holy” in their thoughts, words, and actions by the work of the Holy Spirit.

This is ongoing from the moment of salvation until the Lord comes or the believer dies. Then, our “being made holy” is complete. That’s what Paul is saying in Philippians chapter 1,

he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:6b NIV)

Other translations say that God will perfect His work in us (NET). God’s perfection is so much better than mine ever was! The goal of the Spirit’s work is to transform us into the likeness of Christ) so that we become in thought and behavior what we are in status—holy as God is holy (2 Corinthians 3:18).

God works according to His purpose

As Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2,

for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. (Philippians 2:13)

God is at work to perfect us. It is totally His work to make us acceptable again in His sight. Your proper response and my proper response is to trustand rest in His workand to continually offer Him thanks from a grateful heart along with our willing service.

Our response of gratitude

I still want to be good. But my motivation for being “good” now is not to earn acceptance from God. Rather, my heart is filled with love and gratitude for what God did for me. I want to live a life that pleases Him. I am able to do this not because I am so strong. No, it’s because the Spirit of God lives inside of me—God’s empowering presence enables me to do that which is good in God’s eyes. He’ll do the same for you when you trust Him. Those are reasons to rejoice!

To read more about the work of the Spirit in us, read the blog, “Acts 4-6 • Spirit Filling.”

Believers Are Perfected…No Longer Flawed

Dear Christian, you can dwell on the FACT that God declares you holy because of your faith in Christ. You are set apart by Him, for Him. This is your status before God because of your faith. You can rejoice in that!

Your behavior matches your position when you submit to the Spirit’s work to intentionally separate you from what God calls sin and enable you to live your life God’s way instead.

As one of God’s saints, commit yourself to being used for His purposes throughout a typical day as you care for your household, work for an employer, interact with people around you, and spend your leisure time. You will know joy.

In the next post, we will see how joy comes through releasing expectations of acceptable outcomes.

Want to have joy in your life?

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with the fullness of His joy. Then, live in that joy!

All of the above information is covered in the Knowing Jesus…Knowing Joy! Bible Studycovering Philippians in the New Testament.

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